[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 78 (Thursday, May 11, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6508-S6509]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                            CARE ANNIVERSARY

  Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, during this year 1995 we are commemorating 
many anniversaries of the last days of World War II--of terrible 
battles, of the liberation of concentration camps with their 
unspeakable crimes against humanity, and of the final victories--but I 
rise today to congratulate one of the great humanitarian organizations 
that was born in the ashes of that great war.
  CARE begins the celebration of its 50th year today, on the 
anniversary of the day when the first CARE package arrived in France. A 
coalition of organizations and individual Americans founded CARE--the 
Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe--on November 27, 1945, 
and the first CARE package was received in France on the following May 
11. They set out to create a large and efficient distribution network, 
because they knew the huge scope of the needs in a Europe devastated by 
a long and destructive war.
  That package was the beginning of the largest person-to-person relief 
effort of this century--perhaps of any century. Millions of Americans 
sent more than 100 million CARE packages of food, clothing, medicine, 
and other relief supplies to war survivors in desperate need. CARE 
packages provided the first food some Holocaust victims received after 
being released from the camps. Later, CARE packages brought West 
Berliners their first food after the 1949 blockade.
  CARE was a unique American phenomenon--highly individual, extremely 
generous, idealistic and--against all odds--tremendously successful. 
Germans, Italians, and Japanese remember how stunned they were to 
receive gifts from people with whom they had been at war only a few 
months before. CARE packages not only eased the suffering of survivors 
trying to rebuild their lives and their countries, but helped to build 
the bridges between former enemies that made possible a more lasting 
peace.
  Every single American President has been involved in the relief 
effort since President Harry Truman who sent the first 100 CARE 
packages to the bombed-out town of Le Havre, France. American cities 
and towns had CARE package drives, businesses put up displays 
encouraging people to send CARE packages, Hollywood stars, including 
Bob Hope, Gregory Peck, Marlene Deitrich, Lauren Bacall, and Ingrid 
Bergman, joined in the effort that 
[[Page S6509]] would make the CARE package a part of our language and 
history.
  As Europe and Asia recovered from World War II, CARE adopted a new 
name--the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief
 Everywhere--and a new mission: to help the poorest of the world's 
poor.

  Today CARE helps 30 million people in more than 60 developing 
countries each year to improve their lives through comprehensive 
disaster relief programs as well as assistance for long-term, 
sustainable development projects in agriculture, the environment, 
health, nutrition, population, and small business. In the years since 
that first package, CARE packages have helped more than 1 billion 
people in 121 countries around the world, sending more than $7 billion 
worth of assistance. The countries Americans helped 50 years ago have 
become our political and economic partners and many are now partners as 
well in providing CARE packages to others in need. CARE has 11 
international offices in Europe and Japan, and has twice been nominated 
for a Nobel Prize.
  The plain brown boxes stamped CARE have been a symbol of the best 
American spirit of generosity and hope to a hurting world for half a 
century. I am proud that CARE now is headquartered in Atlanta, GA, and 
proud of the wonderful work it has done throughout the world. This is 
an appropriate time for a new generation to learn about the real CARE 
package--not just goodies from home, but a package reflecting that same 
love and caring that reaches out in friendship to those in need.
  Mr. President, as CARE begins its 50th anniversary celebration, I 
would urge that new generations--and their mothers, fathers, 
grandmothers, and grandfathers who have been sending those plain brown 
boxes stamped CARE all these years--to join in the effort to change 
lives and send a real CARE package.


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